There are currently 11 Masters Champions competing on the Champions Tour, with a collective 16 Masters victories. To put this into prospective, the PGA Tour has only eight Masters Champions, with a collective 13 Masters victories.

Each of the following golf legends, and potential Senior PGA Championship contenders, will attempt to add another green jacket to their already historic careers when the 2009 Masters Tournament tees off at August National on April 9.

Gary Player (1961, 1974, 1978)

Raymond Floyd (1976)

Tom Watson (1977, 1981)

Fuzzy Zoeller (1979)

Craig Stadler (1982)

Ben Crenshaw (1984, 1995)

Bernhard Langer (1985, 1993)

Larry Mize (1987)

Sandy Lyle (1988)

Ian Woosnam (1991)

Mark O’Meara (1998)

A word of warning to all PGA Tour golfers … these guys can still play! Last week at the Punta Espada Golf Club in Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, Mark O’Meara (T-2), Bernhard Langer (T-6) and Craig Stadler (T-15) finished a combined 26 under par.

Visit www.pga.com for special coverage of the Masters and all things golf.

PGA Tour players Mark Calcavecchia and Kenny Perry will both be eligible to join the Champions Tour in 2010. While Mark seems genuinely excited about the upcoming opportunity, Kenny is offering a word of warning to the current Champions Tour players.

Mark Calcavecchia

Image provided by: PGA of America

“I’m really looking forward to the Champions Tour. Jeff Sluman (a rookie last year, he finished T-9 at Oak Hill in his first Senior PGA Championship) told me the golf is super-competitive out there. I know those guys can still play but I think the overall atmosphere out there will be much more relaxed. I think the Champions Tour will fit my personality perfectly. I can be aggressive on the course and that’s the style of play I like. It’s a tailor-made situation for me.”

The 2009 Senior PGA Championship would like to congratulate Bernhard Langer for his winning performance this past weekend at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship. He kicked off his sophomore season on the Champions Tour by shooting 18-under over the three-day tournament, edging out Andy Bean by one stroke and defending Senior PGA Champion, Jay Haas, by three strokes. Click here for the full article.

Langer could be the one to watch this May at Canterbury Golf Club. Last year, at the 2008 Senior PGA Championship, he finished second to Jay Haas by only 1 stroke, and finished in the top 10 in 14 of the 20 Champions Tour events he competed in, winning three of them.

With the Champions Tour officially kicking off its season this month in Hawaii, Bill Fields with Golf Digest Magazine penned a great article about the 1979 Fred Raphael’s Legends of Golf tournament, which inspired the formation of a senior tour — eventually becoming the Champions Tour.

In the article, Fields recounts the second Legends tournament and how a national audience witnessed the playoff between Julius Boros/Robert De Vicenzo and Tommy Bolt/Art Wall, Jr. Fields details how both teams went clutch shot for clutch shot, for six exciting holes, showing the nation that seniors could still compete as formidably as men half their age.

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70th Senior PGA Championship

Blog Overview

The 70th SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP BLOG was created to give you behind-the-scenes access to Cleveland's first Major Golf Championship in more than 10 years.

Readers will be some of the first to view breaking news about the Championship, including player commitments, clubhouse and course preparation updates, special opportunities to get involved and Championship scores and highlights.